Valley Is Ready For New Water Standards * Suppliers Don't Think Plants Will Need Upgrades To Meet New Safety Guidelines.

December 05, 1998|by DAN HARTZELL, The Morning Call

Several of the major water suppliers in Lehigh and Northampton counties anticipate no need for major upgrades to water filtration plants to meet new water-quality standards announced Thursday by President Clinton.

Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton water plants are new enough, have had recent upgrades, or have anticipated the changes so that they probably meet the tougher standards already, officials said.

Stemming from 1996 amendments to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, the stronger standards are intended to reduce the threat of cryptosporidium and other parasitic organisms spread by human or animal feces. A cryptosporidium outbreak killed more than 50 Milwaukee residents and hospitalized 4,000 more in 1993.

The regulations also tighten standards for the amount of chlorine byproducts in drinking water -- substances including trihalomethanes that are suspected of causing cancer in laboratory animals.

Allentown Water Resources Manager Daniel Koplish said Thursday he hadn't yet seen the details of Clinton's announcement, but that the changes had been anticipated by the water-supply industry for months.

"The issues we are aware of, we are prepared to deal with," Koplish said, adding that any anticipated plant improvements would be covered by the 5 percent water-rate increase approved by City Council Wednesday.

The Allentown system, the region's biggest, serves about 130,000 people in the city and surrounding municipalities.

The new rules also require operational changes to some treatment plants, such as more frequent monitoring of filters. Koplish said Allentown's plant, on which major modifications were completed last year, already meet the new operational standards.

"Knowing this was going to come about, we ... have already adopted the new standards voluntarily," he said.

Easton Water Department Supervisor John Gier also hadn't seen the new standards, but said that judging by the city's most recent tests, its water probably already meets the new limits.

"We just last year replaced all our ... activated carbon filter media," and results from subsequent testing by the state "were well under the limits" for all particulates, including cryptosporidium, Gier said.

Based on that preliminary information, Gier said he doubts any major modifications will be needed.

Bethlehem Director of Water Resources Kathleen Reese said the city's filtration plant, which opened in October 1994, also probably meets the more stringent standards.

Reese said she had discussed the anticipated new standards with city Water Treatment Superintendent Jeffrey Andrews, and it was my understanding ... we have nothing to worry about" because of the city's high-tech, $22.4 million plant in Lehigh Township.

Lehigh County Authority General Manager Aurel M. Arndt said the regulations affect chiefly surface water supplies such as rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and not groundwater, which is the chief source of the authority's supply serving about 23,000 residents plus commercial and manufacturing customers.

The authority buys a small portion of its water from the Slatington and Northampton systems, which are filtered, but Arndt was not aware Thursday whether or to what degree the new regulations will affect those plants.

The regulations regarding chlorine byproducts could eventually affect the authority, but Arndt could not be more specific without more details about the new standards.

Rick Loomis, program director at the Allentown office of Clean Water Action, a nonprofit lobbying group, said the organization generally welcomes the stricter standards, but will continue to push for more prevention measures, rather than ways to deal with pollution problems after they arise.

"We would applaud anything that helps to improve our drinking water," Loomis said. "The difficulty is the concentration on treatment" rather than prevention. "Our feeling is, if you can keep (pollutants) from getting into the water in the first place, you don't have to treat" as aggressively.

Ways to help prevent pollution, Loomis said, would include stricter controls over chemical manufacturers, fertilizer applications and runoff from major animal farms and processing plants.

Tainted runoff from all of those operations can be a major polluter of streams, lakes and reservoirs, Loomis said.